Andrea Stolowitz | Recent Unsettling Events

RECENT UNSETTLING EVENTS centers on a small liberal arts college which erupts in protests over its required Western Civilization class. As the fights intensify and the entire campus takes sides, the complexities of identity politics, the limits of free speech, and the consequences of preserving the status quo are examined.

Regarding writing a play about these complicated and highly topical issues, Andrea says , "The play does not offer solutions because I do not have any. The play does offer the basis for complex discussions. I hope through presenting diverse viewpoints the theater itself can become a forum for the conversations contained in the play. I believe we all have more in common than we think we do. I hope that through my characters’ idealogical differences we are able to to find our own collective commonalities."

Andrea Stolowitz’s plays have been developed and presented nationally and internationally at theaters such as The Long Wharf, The Old Globe, The Cherry Lane, and New York Stage and Film. The LA Times calls her work “heartbreaking” and the Orange County Register characterizes her approach as a “brave refusal to sugarcoat issues and tough decisions.”

A recipient of Artists Repertory Theater’s $25,000 Fowler/Levin New Play Prize, Andrea premiered her play ITHAKA at the theatre in 2013. The play had its mid-west premiere in Chicago in 2014 at InFusion Theater and its Canada premiere in May 2016. The play won the 2015 Oregon Book Award in Drama judged by Naomi Iizuka.

Andrea’s play ANTARKTIKOS also won the Oregon Book Award for Drama (2013) and was published in July 2013 in TheatreForum magazine. The play world-premiered at The Pittsburgh Playhouse in March 2013 and was workshopped at The New Harmony Project (IN), Portland Center Stage’s JAW Festival, and Seattle Repertory Theater. It was nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and received a 2015 Kilroy’s List Honorable Mention.

KNOWING CAIRO world-premiered at the Old Globe Theatre, which earned San Diego’s “Billie” Best New Play Award and an LA Times’ Critic’s Pick. It is published by Playscripts Inc. and continues to be produced nationally and internationally. It was presented at Profile Theater (OR) in 2013.

Andrea’s latest play BERLIN DIARY was presented at English Theater Berlin/International Performing Arts Center in October 2016. The play was supported through a DAAD fellowship, a year-long residency at ETB/IPAC, and grants from the Oregon Arts Commission, The Regional Arts and Culture Council, The Checkpoint Charlie Foundation, and The US Embassy. The play was developed at PlayPenn/The National Museum of American Jewish History and the New Harmony Project. BERLIN DIARY received its second production in Portland where it received audience and critical success, selling out for the entire run.

Andrea works as a collaborating writer with the award-winning devised theater company Hand2Mouth Theater. Her current collaboration PEP TALK is touring nationally. The San Francisco Chronicle says “The genius of PEP TALK is that it is at once a collective unburdening...in the way the best drama has always been, while also being very funny and self-aware.” She is currently at work on their latest collaboration PSYCHIC UTOPIA.

Andrea is a resident company member at Artists Repertory Theater (www.artistsrep.org) where she has is commissioned to develop REFUGEE RADIO.

An MFA playwriting alumna of UC-San Diego, Andrea has served on the faculties at Willamette University, The University of Portland, Duke University and UC-San Diego.